London Trip

Hey Hey! In such a good mood after returning from the 2nd Year P&P London trip! I was so excited about going as I thought it'd help take my mind off the break up and get me inspired again to start producing more work. And then, the only snow storm to hit London like this in 18 years happened, the day before we left. Well - I was raging. Chances looked very slim on the Monday night of our train leaving from Glasgow Central the following morning.

When we arrived at the train station at 8.20am (we had booked seats on the 8.40am train to London Euston) our train had been canceled! The woman at the information desk explained how we could try to get a seat on the 9.40 train in the unreserved coach. Luckily we did. My friends, John, Gillian, Theresa, Celia and I sat at one of the little tables playing cards, gabbing and stuffing ourselves full of junk during the 5 hour journey. I never realised before how restless I get on long journeys.

Anyways, after some delay we eventually arrived in Euston at about 4.30 or so. Luckily two of Celia's Swedish friends were already in London and brilliant at map reading (not my forte!) and helped us find our way to the generator hostel where we were staying. Nearly fell a couple of times on the way due to the snow and ice. So got to the hostel which looked a little weathered to say the least. The rooms were like ugly prison cells (two screaming blue walls and two shocking red walls with white curtains and the windows were so rusted and moulded we could hardly open them) But hey, its a hostel, what can you expect? And with a good few drinks in you, it was actually pretty comfy and good fun. John, Gillian and I went to get some dinner at a nice wee Italian restaurant on Pentonville road called the other side. Food was good and pretty cheap. Then we headed over early to the pub where we were all meeting as a group for some drinks.
We had a cracking night, so much fun! I met Michael Fullerton (artist who graduated from MFA at Glasgow. See his work at http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artist/Michael-Fullerton) who is a really nice guy.

The next day, it was a day of gallery visits - the serpentine, the saatchi, Buckingham Palace gallery, the white cube and the royal academy. The only one we had to pay into was the one in Buckingham palace - From Bruegel to Rubens. It was well worth the £.7.50 though and I'd highly recommend it (see http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/b2r/ for more info). I was in awe of some of the work there. In the evening, we went out for a few drinks in a pub called smithy's. It was nice. When we got back to the hostel, John and Gillian went to the club there (I was exhausted and had a sore liver after roughly 10 consecutive nights of drinking and so went to my bed).

Our train was at 1.30pm on the Thursday, but was delayed again, so didnt get in until about 7pm. What a brilliant experience though, so glad I went!